HD-DVD Titles Announced for 4th Qtr Release- (1 Viewer)

Posted by amillians-

Warner/New Line/HBO/etc. just announced 52 HD-DVD titles for release Q4 '05:

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Jan/1106003.htm

ABOVE THE LAW
ALEXANDER
ANGELS IN AMERICA (HBO)
AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (NEW LINE)
BATMAN BEGINS
BLADE (NEW LINE)
CATWOMAN
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
CONSTANTINE
CONTACT
DARK CITY (NEW LINE)
THE DUKES OF HAZZARD
ERASER
EXECUTIVE DECISION
FINAL DESTINATION (NEW LINE)
FRIDAY (NEW LINE)
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (HBO)
THE FUGITIVE
GOTHIKA
HARD TO KILL
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE
HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
HOUSE OF WAX (2005)
THE LAST SAMURAI
THE MASK (NEW LINE)
THE MATRIX
THE MATRIX RELOADED
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS
MAVERICK
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
THE MUSIC MAN
MYSTIC RIVER
NEXT OF KIN
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
OCEAN'S ELEVEN
OCEAN'S TWELVE
PASSENGER 57
THE PERFECT STORM
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (2004)
THE PLAYER (NEW LINE)
THE POLAR EXPRESS
RED PLANET
RUSH HOUR (NEW LINE)
SE7EN (NEW LINE)
SOLDIER
THE SOPRANOS (HBO)
SPAWN (NEW LINE)
SWORDFISH
TROY
UNDER SIEGE
U.S. MARSHALS
WILD WILD WEST

Paramount just announced 21 HD-DVD titles for Q4 '05:

http://www.mysan.de/international/article21498.html

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS
ELIZABETHTOWN
COACH CARTER
ITALIAN JOB
SCHOOL OF ROCK
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
FORREST GUMP
BRAVEHEART
GHOST
GREASE
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2
BLACK RAIN
SAVE THE LAST DANCE
SLEEPY HOLLOW
U2 RATTLE & HUM
VANILLA SKY
LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER
STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT
WE WERE SOLDIERS

Universal just announced 16 HD-DVD titles, likely for Q1 '06:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2774126&EDATE=

THE BOURNE SUPREMACY
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK
VAN HELSING
APOLLO 13
U-571
12 MONKEYS
DUNE
THE THING
END OF DAYS
BACKDRAFT
WATERWORLD
THE BONE COLLECTOR
SPY GAME
PITCH BLACK
CONAN THE BARBARIAN
DANTE'S PEAK

It begins Can't wait.

Update 5 February-

I promised myself I would wait 2 or 3 years for this. However, I just bought a new HDTV and just got HD Cable ---- and I know it's going to be SO tough to hold off looking at some of these titles.

Dave I know what you mean. Now all I have to do is decide when to sell of my current DVDs titles that are mentioned in the list above

Spero D.

The tv series, or some upcoming movie adaptation?

However, if the Cinram replicator statements are correct these mostly may be on those oh so wonderful DVD-9/HD-DVD-15 hybrid discs.

I don't know about you, but 15 GB is not enough for optimal HD video or audio. Especially not enticing since players will be around $1,000 to start. For that much I want the best. Period.

I'll wait to see what Blu-Ray counters with. I'm sure it'll be interesting to see the "can you top this" game!

North By Northwest?

I wonder if this means Warner had Lowry Digital re-do their restoration. Their first restoration still looks wonderful, but looking at it today... it still has a touch too much fading.

While I have no idea if the color timing is actually correct (given that the source apparently had fading), this is what looks correct to me:

DVD:


Corrected(?):


It looks a lot like the problem with Lawrence of Arabia's original Limited Edition. Pink sand and pink skies.

Ditto.

Wow. That's a nice list. Quite a few that I would be willing to re-buy if I had a player. But I probably won't pay more than 150 for it with my current income. Of course, by the time these things hit, my income should be significantly higher.

Titles should be the least of your worries. How about video and audio quality? True 1080p? Lossless or uncompressed audio?

HD-DVD doesn't look all that hot spec. wise if they're using only 15 GB single layered discs right out of the gate. At the very, very least Blu-Ray starts at 25 GB on a single layer and they have the newest MPEG-4 AVC High Profile codec to use (supposedly at least visually meets D-5 tape quality at 16 Megabits/sec average bitrates for 1080p/24 content... you can't do that and lossless audio on a 15 GB HD-DVD). HD-DVD has not ratified usage of the HP version of MPEG-4, which also seemed to beat Microsoft's regular VC-1 codec in comparison tests given similar bitrates.

Dan

I like your enthusiasm Dan for Blu-Ray but I disagree with this comment. Without content there is no format. I believe that the format that is 1st out onto the market with large content support will win. I agree with you about getting the best picture and lossless sound and also hope Blu-Ray will win. However that won't stop me from buying a HD-DVD player and titles come September-December and the same goes for Blu-Ray.

That's an impressive list of titles.

Se7en and The Player are the only titles that I'm interested in myself, but there are alot of big titles that are aimed at the mainstream - which is a smart move.

Looks like some of those titles will be released simultaneously with their DVD debut as well (ie. Batman Begins). Very smart to give the consumer the opportunity to purchase a debut title on HD-DVD without forcing them to purchase the DVD first.

I'm assuming these will all be "bare bones" releases to be followed by inevitable SE's at a later date?

Any idea on the cost of each film? $30? $40

John

I would assume most of us here have some high end components.
I was watching DVD's this holiday break on a HD 50inch Samsung Plasma. I'm using a Denon 3910 with SDI into an Iscan that pushes it out 1280x768. I can't imagine the image getting much better.
Will the difference in quality be worth the extra $20 per disc? Don't sell your collection just yet. Wait and see.

Would someone need a set-top box or could I go the HTPC route for these discs?

Amen to what Ron says.

I bet "THE PERFECT STORM" will look awesome in HD on a big screen!

Amen, Ron.

I'd buy a $1k HD DVD player right now if I knew that there was only 1 format.

Same here for me. I bought my first dvd player during the summer of 1997, but I'm going to sit out this format war until a winner or some kind of resolution has been declared.

Hey, that's Hollywood for ya! So greedy, yet so uncoordinated!

We're a tiny bit on the outskirts of this here in England but still, I'm not going to give Hollywood the satisfaction of ANOTHER $30-$40 for the SAME films over again, only to be tempted to upgrade to SEs (when they decide they can fit lotsa special features aswell) and THEN maybe having to duplicate titles across platforms if one of them fails to take off (and one of them is BOUND to fall away after a few years).

Let's say Blu-Ray succeeds and HD-DVD fails. Unlikely but you never know (the superior format never wins!). If Blu-Ray is significantly better, and the old HD-DVD titles start coming out on Blu-Ray are you seriously telling me you're NOT going to buy all of these over again on Blu-Ray? C'mon, the temptation will be too great.

I'm tired of continually upgrading my existing collection (yes, I bought hundreds of laserdiscs). I want to EXPAND my library, not copy it! And SD-DVD is the best way to do that right now and, I think, for the foreseeable future.

Besides which, many of the titles listed above are junk. I mean Catwoman? Soldier? Gothika? Red Planet? Tomb Raider? Van Helsing? Wild Wild West? Waterworld? Why have we started putting the "oooh" and "aaah" factor of HD picture before the quality of the films themselves?

This is all kinda scary!

John


PS. Have you seen the new players? They're a cross between retro 80s and downright ugly!